Centralization and ease of access is imperative in today’s fast paced agency world. The ability to quickly check a project’s status and keep everyone informed is critical to the success of the overall project.

The Webvantage Job Jacket is the central point for all of a job’s activities. With AQUA, the Job Jacket is now a streamlined ‘dashboard’ with a navigation bar that provides instant access to job-related information. Any time you access a Job Jacket, this new Project Management Dashboard (PMD) will be presented.

The Project Management Dashboard (PMD) includes all modules available through the Job Jacket and additional job-related information. A few of these modules include:

Job Status – The Job Status dashboard provides a quick snapshot of various information for the job

Team – The Team dashboard displays information cards for each of the Team Members for the job

Alerts – Provides access to all Alerts, Alert Assignments and Calendar appointments created on the job

Documents – All Documents associated with the Job will be displayed

Media – The Media dashboard is designed to provide a central location for viewing all media orders associated with the job

Risk Analysis – Risk Analysis dashboard enables the monitoring the progress of the Job. This is a unique tool that allows the monitoring of the progress of all projects and spots risks, predict results and head-off problems from kick-off to completion.

Calendar – The Calendar provides a view of tasks and calendar activities associated to the Project Schedule for your Job

Learn more about how our agency software can keep your agency profitable and help minimize profit-busting clients by contacting Tina Hussion at tina.hussion@gotoadvantage.com or call 800-841-2078. We look forward to showing you the awesome power of executive dashboards inside Webvantage AQUA!

]]>Stop Killing Your Agency Profits!http://www.gotoadvantage.com/news/reporting/stop-killing-agency-profits
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:07:27 +0000http://www.gotoadvantage.com/?p=4349The ability to swiftly take corrective action on clients where you are losing money as well as what correction is needed can only be done if the information you have is timely, accurate, and complete.

]]>So we’re approaching the end of the year and we all begin the process of evaluating whether we had a “good” year or not. And in that analysis and evaluation, we review each client. “Are you evaluating which clients were profitable and which clients are robbing your bottom line,” says Ellen Coulter, president of Advantage Software. “The ability to keeping on top of which clients are showing a profit or loss is an imperative tool for analyzing your agency’s business.”

How Can We Stop Killing Our Agency Profits?

“Client P&L reports in the advertising industry are part of typical monthly analysis and Advantage sets the standard for these reports.” – Ellen Coulter, president, Advantage Software

The best client profit and loss analysis comes from access to every piece of data that you can pull from an account’s history. The Advantage Client Profit and Loss datasets and reports include many different reporting options, including ones that allow you to calculate true employee cost.

“The ability to swiftly take corrective action on clients where you are losing money as well as what correction is needed can only be done if the information you have is timely, accurate, and complete,” adds Coulter. “No other system does more to help you manage your clients and keep them happy.”

Track a client’s time loss. Does your agency do “free” work for your clients without billing? How much time is spent on these activities? How much money does your agency lose from these clients?

Don’t be afraid to fire unprofitable clients. Remember, you’re in business to succeed. If you’re losing too much money on an agency client, don’t be afraid to address the issue with them and fire them if the situation won’t correct itself! You can always let them know that certain tasks or projects are out of scope and need to be quoted.

Do better project and time estimating. “Advantage AQUA gives our agencies powerful executive dashboards that can instantly pull data to show how much time was spent on a particular project,” adds Coulter. “This is gold when it comes time to provide more precise estimates on repeat or similar project work.”

Are your client projects too “team heavy?” – With the Advantage AQUA executive dashboard, you can evaluate individual employee costs associated with each client project. You can then determine if you are losing money because you have too many top team members on the project.

“Advantage AQUA can help you gather and deliver data sets that provide a clearer and more accurate picture of your agency’s profitability by employee, team, project and client,” says Coulter. “We developed system automated alerts to help our agencies know when client contracts are expiring and when specific reports are due. We help keep your agency profitable.”

Learn more about how the Executive Dashboard and related tools provide instant and visual insight into your business in real time to solve real problems! Learn more about how our agency software can keep your agency profitable and help minimize profit-busting clients by contacting Tina Hussion at tina.hussion@gotoadvantage.com or call 800-841-2078. We look forward to showing you the awesome power of executive dashboards inside Webvantage AQUA!

Advantage v670.00.17 or higher is prepared to assist you with this new FLSA requirement.

“We prepared an extensive FLSA Reporting Users Guide (download the Guide here) that explains how you can use existing features in Advantage for reporting required information, tracking overtime hours, missing time alerts, and submitting hours worked by employee to your payroll company,” said Coulter. “Using the Advanced and Dynamic Report Writers will enable the preparation on FLSA reports to comply with these new regulations.”

“We have also provided a preformatted Advanced Report and a Dynamic Report Dashboard that can be imported into your Advantage database,” added Coulter. “V670.00.17 or higher includes updates to the Employee Time Approval dataset required to print the preformatted reports.”

Approval of overtime can be a part of the process of paying and tracking overtime. This can be handled electronically utilizing the Timesheet Approval application. The Timesheet Approval application allows the supervisor to review individual employee’s time records that have been submitted for approval and time records that have not yet been submitted.

“We are very sensitive to changes in federal reporting documentation that affects our agency clients,” said Coulter. “And we are responding swiftly to assist our agency clients in maintaining compliance through the use of Advantage Software.”

For questions about the new FLSA Reporting Users Guide and how this interacts with Advantage Software, please contact Tina Hussion at tina.hussion@gotoadvantage.com or call 800-841-2078.

]]>Time is Money, People!http://www.gotoadvantage.com/news/reporting/time-money-people
Wed, 16 Nov 2016 20:55:22 +0000http://www.gotoadvantage.com/?p=4305We have all heard the old adage that "time is money." This is particularly true for the advertising agency. If you know where your time is being spent, you know where your money is being spent.

]]>Not accounting for billable time or losing billable time only affects the profitability of your agency. “Knowing where your talent is spending their time is imperative to managing agency profitability,” says Ellen Coulter, president of Advantage Software. “Measuring the profitability and efficiency of your agency team members is of the utmost importance as we meet and talk with agency leaders on how Webvantage AQUA can help them run their agency well.”

Agency Employee Time vs. Actual Client Time

One of the core features of Webvantage AQUA is the incredible analysis dashboards that offer our agencies two different perspectives on measuring team member time.

“Our Employee Utilization dashboard measures employee productivity and realization by department including enough detail to see exactly what’s going on and where you may have challenges,” says Coulter. “And our Client Time analysis takes that same employee time data and arranges it in views that allow agency leaders to analyze estimate, actual fee time and non-billable time with all the details you need to understand the outcomes.”

Measure quantity and trends for actual time posted

Analyze employee utilization using a series of dashboards in real time by month, quarter or year

Gain insight into how clients are utilizing your most important asset

Up to date tracking of fee time for Service Fee Clients

Detail tracking of write offs of time by employee and client

“If you know where your time is being spent in your agency, you know where your money is being spent.” – Ellen Coulter, president, Advantage Software

Webvantage AQUA is developed for agencies that are powered by people, incredible service to clients and profitability. Our executive dashboard lets you start out simple and take deep data dives and the click of your mouse. This is instant access and visual insight into your agency business in real time to solve real problems.

Learn more about how key management tools provide insight into your business at any time without waiting for monthly financial reports by contacting Tina Hussion at tina.hussion@gotoadvantage.com or call 800-841-2078. We look forward to showing you the awesome power of executive dashboards inside Webvantage AQUA!

“Let us begin by saying that our new Webvantage AQUA executive dashboard is the one management tool that empowers everyone in the agency with accurate, beautifully-presented data that’s easy to share with your team,” says Coulter. “This new executive dashboard literally lets you keep your finger on the moving pulse of your agency’s financial condition with some key workspace objects like billing trends, cash balance, current ratio and direct expenses.”

Why The Executive Dashboard Gives You Power

One of the key elements behind the development of Webvantage AQUA was to give our agency clients the direct access and instant picture of the state of your agency. “Instantly get a picture of the ups and downs of billing using the Billing Trends object and get more detail with the Gross Income objects where you can drill down to details and even see the related invoices,” says Coulter. “Just imagine in your mind that these various pipelines of critical data are being fed to your executive dashboard with a continuous supply of data allowing you to instantly visualize key aspects that help you make decisions.”

“It’s all about the cash.” You need to know where you are in terms of cash, at all times. Use the Cash Balance object to get real-time cash balances and monitor deposits and payments. At the same time, monitor your current ratio and get real-time alerts on write-offs being made on large purchase as they occur!

The Webvantage AQUA executive dashboard allows you to drill deeply into your agency’s data and present visual displays to easily convey the state and status of every job, employee, client and detail inside your agency.

5 Major Benefits of Using Our Executive Dashboard

Totally customizable. You connect the data points that you want to see.

All in one place. Every aspect of your agency reports to your dashboard.

Great graphics.Visually organize data into easy-to-read graphs and charts.

Learn more about how key management tools provide insight into your business at any time without waiting for monthly financial reports by contacting Tina Hussion at tina.hussion@gotoadvantage.com or call 800-841-2078. We look forward to showing you the awesome power of executive dashboards inside Webvantage AQUA!

]]>Your Agency is Not a Bankhttp://www.gotoadvantage.com/news/advertising-agency-software/your-agency-is-not-a-bank
Wed, 02 Nov 2016 16:58:00 +0000http://www.gotoadvantage.com/?p=4285At times there is a delicate balancing act of mutual respect in the partnership between agency and client to manage their receivables to keep the agency operating and profitable.

]]>How many times have you and your agency wondered aloud, “our agency is not a bank and these clients need to pay on time!” Well, you’re not alone when it comes to managing client receivables, agency cash flow and timely client collections. “Timely collections of agency receivables is a sensitive topic to many agency executives,” says Ellen Coulter, president of Advantage Software. “At times there is a delicate balancing act of mutual respect in the partnership between agency and client to manage their receivables to keep the agency operating and profitable.”

We Are An Agency, Not a Bank!

Best business practices tell us that monitoring receivables and cash collection on a regular basis helps keep an open line of communications between the agency and the client. “We have an incredible Executive Dashboard inside our Advantage AQUA agency software that clearly assists agency executives with managing client receivables and cash flow,” said Coulter. “Having this dashboard available 24/7 is critical in managing the agency’s flow of client receivables and subsequent operating capital and we take pride in our executive dashboard function.”

Handling Past Due Invoices – Easy As It Goes!

The executive dashboard inside Advantage AQUA is the most accurate and up-to-date tool that agency account executives and managers use to communicate invoice and account information to the clients. “Our dashboard gives agency executives immediate access to their client’s past due invoices, including due dates, invoice copies and collection notes,” says Coulter. “This dashboard holds the key to empowering agency executives to easily manage a client’s account and, at times, can serve as the impetus for halting further agency work until invoices are paid.”

Step 1: Don’t send a nasty email or make a demanding phone call! First, review all of the account details from the executive dashboard. Make sure the dates and amounts are correct and that the recipient has indeed received the invoice.

Step 2: Make sure that the client actually received the invoice. Was it caught in their spam? Did the post office eat it? Do you use return receipts from email?

Step 3: Send a clearly worded and friendly email to the client. Tell them in the email that you are following up on an invoice that has not yet been paid. Include a copy of the invoice as a friendly prompt. Ask if there is any further information that the client would need to process the payment.

Step 4: Document your steps inside the executive dashboard for all to read.

Step 5: Include a “call to action” in the email, for example, “We look forward to receiving your payment this week. Thank you for your continued business!”

Step 6: Communication is key. Leave your emotions out of the email and phone calls! And remember to keep all of your notes inside the executive dashboard.

“One of our very important features inside the executive dashboard is the ability to proactively monitor ‘expected’ payments, to identify potential problems, and to make better informed decisions by using the A/R Cash Forecast feature,” added Coulter. “The A/R Cash Forecast object in Advantage AQUA is a projection of payments all based on each client’s payment history.”

Learn more about how the Executive Dashboard and related tools provide instant and visual insight into your business in real time to solve real problems! For more information contact Tina Hussion at tina.hussion@gotoadvantage.com.

]]>Agency Alert – Digital Media Managementhttp://www.gotoadvantage.com/news/media-management/agency-alert-digital-media-management
Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:03:56 +0000http://www.gotoadvantage.com/?p=4279As we entered 2016 back in January, agency and advertising predictions were that brands and marketers would increase digital advertising spending by as much as 80%. One of the largest trends that our agency clients saw in 2016 was the shrinking of offline ad budgets moving over to digital media.

]]>It’s no secret or quiet discussion inside any agency that digital media management has disrupted routines and workflows while creating opportunities to super-serve client brands. “One of the single largest requests we have had from our agencies is the inclusion of digital media management with the latest releases of Advantage AQUA,” said Ellen Coulter, president of Advantage Software. “Planning, buying and analyzing digital media programs is vital to every agency’s bottom line as the demands pour in from clients needing increased digital spends.”

The Incredible Rise of Digital Media Budgets

As we entered 2016 back in January, agency and advertising predictions were that brands and marketers would increase digital advertising spending by as much as 80%. “Digital media planning, buying and reporting exploded this past year as a need with our agency clients to account for it inside their agency management software,” added Coulter. “We, of course, responded with incredible capacity to accommodate growing digital media budgets, purchasing and reporting in Advantage AQUA.”

One of the largest trends that our agency clients saw in 2016 was the shrinking of offline ad budgets moving over to digital media. “We were ready when that trend picked up pace early in 2016,” said Coulter. “Through discussions with our agencies in 2015, we knew that accommodating digital media management inside our software would be mission critical as the new year would unfold.”

In 2016, the average person now spends more time online than with TV and all other media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) combined. – Ellen Coulter, Advantage Software

Planning, Buying & Reporting Against Digital Media Spends

Brands and marketers jumped into digital media in 2015 without methods or software to track results against spend. “We saw this trend unfolding and discussions with our agency clients indicated that they needed our software to act and respond in the same manner as traditional media did,” said Coulter. “With that as our beginning point, we developed a complete digital media management section to complement the traditional offline media sections. The results in Advantage’s AQUA release this year have been phenomenal.”

Forecasts for 2017 are that spending on digital media will surpass TV for the first time. “We are ready to accommodate agency and their client demands for planning, buying and reporting against digital media,” says Coulter. “And we are strengthening our digital media management software functionalities to have the flexibility for the evolving needs of brands and marketers expanding their digital media footprints.”

]]>The media buyer and the media planner have two of the hardest jobs at any agency. How much of the audience can we buy for the budget we have? How hard will we need to negotiate with the media? How intense will the reconciliation be? How close did we hit our targets?

“We work so closely with media buyers and media planners at our agency clients because we want to develop our Advantage AQUA software to mirror how they actually do their jobs with respect to media and media management,” said Ellen Coulter of Advantage Software. “It’s a tough dance between the strategy, the planning, the tight budgets and timelines and the ultimate measurement of performance. These agency professionals need software to place, hold, buy and record campaign results…in one place.”

Managing Digital Media Inside Agency Software

So it’s a given that we have developed our Advantage AQUA software as a direct extension of today’s modern agency planner and agency buyer. “Our software workflow is the same workflow that these agency professionals use everyday to achieve success for their marketers and clients,” added Coulter. “Our software must have the features and unique characteristics that enhance the media professional’s job so they can perform efficiently time after time.”

Building the Ultimate Digital Media Management Hub

“Agencies tell us everyday how they work and what they need to be more efficient,” says Coulter. “Our job is to always develop ou Advantage AQUA software to complement their tasks while streamlining communication and data management across the agency.” There are key features inside Advantage AQUA that help media buyers and media planners perform their roles in the most efficient and profitable manner possible. For example,

Update order details at any time, before, after or during order placement;

Manage vendor and rep details from the orders without having to go back to the maintenance modules;

Build media quotes, orders, revisions and cancellations, then blast them to vendor reps through email;

Approve orders for billing online;

View orders by Job and get immediate access to creative and other documents directly from the screen;

View and approve related vendor invoices and see payments that have been made;

“One of the best parts of our Advantage AQUA software is importing the reported data from an agency’s 3rd party ad server into the software for reporting and analysis,” says Coulter. “Then easily attach those results to the media plan or campaign to use the data sets for digital results reporting. It’s fast, easy and fun to use!”

We appreciate the hundreds of media planners and media buyers that we help on a daily basis with AQUA Advantage. At any time you can send us feedback and suggestions on how to improve these tools to help you improve your individual performance.

]]>Managing Your Agency’s Digital Mediahttp://www.gotoadvantage.com/news/managing-agencys-digital-media
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 14:43:12 +0000http://www.gotoadvantage.com/?p=4266Every agency is being asked to plan and buy more digital media. Social advertising, pay-per-click, digital billboards and digital ads on just about every platform. We automated and centralized all digital media into one place and one system.

]]>Every agency is being asked to plan and buy more digital media. Social advertising, pay-per-click, digital billboards and digital ads on just about every platform. “We work so closely with our agencies on how they need to use our Advantage AQUA agency management software,” says Ellen Coulter, president of Advantage Software. “Planning and buying digital media is at the top of the list stemming from high demands from their brands and clients.”

Planning and buying digital media inside Advantage AQUA is just as easy and powerful as traditional media. We automated and centralized all digital media into one place and one system. “Well, we tell our agencies that they can throw away their outdated spreadsheets and paper files because we have everything they need for managing digital media workflow built in to Advantage AQUA.”

Managing Digital Media in Your Agency

Managing digital media inside your agency begins with creating flexible media plans and flowcharts that you can use to plan with your agency and client team. “Our agencies can use multiple rate types within the same plan estimate and calculate estimated CTR’s and conversion rates,” added Coulter. “Plus we can work backward by entering a client budget with estimated CPM/CPC/CPA and calculate the estimated unit quantity.”

One of the biggest timesavers in Advantage AQUA is the quick and easy way we designed order creation from an approved media plan. “Our digital media planners and buyers at the agency really like how they can create orders from the entire plan or create partial order by date and/or vendor with no more manual entry.”

As quickly as you create digital media orders, you can bring everything together in the New Media Manager module, giving you one centralized location for managing all orders with multiple functions.

“Our agencies really like the robust reporting feature we have developed with our digital media management module,” added Coulter. “You can quickly and easily import the reported data from your 3rd party ad server into Media/Digital results for phenomenal reporting and analysis.”

]]>Agency Alert On Managing Your Email!http://www.gotoadvantage.com/news/advertising-agency-software/agency-alert-managing-email
Mon, 26 Sep 2016 17:25:22 +0000http://www.gotoadvantage.com/?p=4257While an inbox overflowing with unopened emails can be daunting, having the tools to help you manage your digital correspondence efficiently will allow you to maximize the benefits of email communication.

]]>“Communicating via email is a necessary evil in the modern agency workplace,” says Ellen Coulter, president of Advantage Software. “While an inbox overflowing with unopened emails can be daunting, having the tools to help you manage your digital correspondence efficiently will allow you to maximize the benefits of email communication.”

The Fog of Email

Email can be both a cornerstone of communication and a mechanism for information overload. Teams can be kept up to date on the status of projects, but at the same time can have important messages “lost” in the deluge of email that we all get daily inside an agency. Important action messages can be missed, or lost, and finding them at a later date can become a challenge. It’s called the fog of email!

Agency Email Tools Inside Advantage’s AQUA

At Advantage, we’ve addressed this information overload and have developed ways to keep all the important information in one place with easy access and accurate recoverable archives. Messages can be pulled out of the email threads and kept at several different levels inside Advantage’s AQUA. There are three main tools that we do this with. Alerts, Alert assignments and our latest Chat.

Alerts are a collaborative communication tool that allows us to:

Communicate to a group of people

Keep a “thread” of everyone’s comments

Attach files that may need to be reviewed

Save at various levels for easy review of the conversation

Can be used in automatic communications

Keep the communication in one place out of the fog of email

Alert Assignments is a communication tool that helps us to:

Communicate a workflow with specific steps or routing with an assignment going to a specific person. Others may be CC’d and the entire communication is trackable.

Keep a “thread” of everyone’s comments as the workflow is executed

Attach files that may need to be reviewed

Save at various levels for easy review of the conversation

Can be used in automatic communications

Keep the communication in one place out of the fog of email

Chat

Rooms can be set up and team members invited

Instant communications can take place

Chats can be saved to a specific job component to keep track of conversations relating to that specific job.

“These tools will improve your efficiencies and overall communications inside your agency,” adds Coulter. “Email is a wonderful tool used properly and the communication and collaboration tools built into Advantage’s AQUA make communication even better, faster and more efficient.”